[zoklet-enjoyer]

Just a few hours ago while celebrating Easter, I had a discussion about oatmeal with my girlfriend's husband's dad about all the ways oatmeal can be enjoyed. My favorite way to make it is let the oatmeal sit overnight in vanilla soy milk, then mix in peanut butter, coffee, and cocoa powder or chocolate protein powder, and microwave. It's so good. I eat that at work maybe two or 3 times a week.

[nozzlegear]

> with my girlfriend's husband's dad

With your what now?

[zoklet-enjoyer]

My girlfriend is married but they been split up for like 10+ years, just never got divorced. We're all friends and it's all good.

[frakkingcylons]

I appreciate the world building in this oatmeal comment

[867-5309]

that was an unexpected Occam!

[jihadjihad]

I can’t figure out which is worse, a girlfriend’s husband’s dad, or a husband’s girlfriend’s dad.

[Morromist]

I do roughly the same thing -Just oats with nuts and berries, no coffee or powder- but I haven't landed on what kind of oats to use yet for soaked oats. There are a ton of different kinds out there.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

I usually just get the quick oats. I dunno the difference between em all. Texture doesn't really matter to me.

Sometimes I like to put a banana in there or some blueberries.

[mft_]

Quick oats are typically just rolled/cut to be smaller, so that they have a higher total surface area and so soak up liquid more easily. The downside is that this also makes them easier/faster to digest, so they have a higher glycaemic index (i.e. deliver a higher blood sugar spike) and give a shorter period of satiety.

Rolled oats are the uncut variety, which don't cook quickly for convenient porridge, but are great to soak as overnight oats. You can also get some which are basically in the middle - cut a bit so good for reasonably quick porridge (~5-7 minutes) but a bit more filling.

[zoklet-enjoyer]

Oh, so I should switch since I'm usually soaking them overnight anyway.

[Blackthorn]

"old fashioned" rolled oats are the standard afaict and I always cook them in 5 minutes

[mft_]

Interesting. Unless we have different standards for what constitutes a cooked oat, maybe we're talking about slightly different things? The full-size rolled oats (sometimes called 'robust') here in Germany are nowhere close to soft (and are still distinctly floating in the milk) after simmering for 20+ minutes. The alternative is also described as rolled oats (sometimes called 'tender') but are visually smaller; that's what cooks in 5-6 minutes.

[Blackthorn]

This must be different, the "old fashioned rolled oats" sold in America would be more than done after 20 minutes of simmering.

Going by Bob's Red Mill, which is an excellent brand, we've got: * Old Fashioned rolled oats, 10 minutes: https://www.bobsredmill.com/product/regular-rolled-oats [the store brand I always see, on the other hand, is 5 minutes]

* Steel cut oats, 15-20 minutes (this is a lie, it takes longer than 20 minutes for them to get sufficiently soft in my experience, for any steel cut oat brand): https://www.bobsredmill.com/product/steel-cut-oats

* Quick cooking rolled oats, 3 minutes (in my experience this is consistent across all store brands, down to 2 minutes): https://www.bobsredmill.com/product/organic-quick-cooking-ro...

They also have a second species of oats that are significantly higher in protein, and they take 15+ minutes to cook in "rolled oat" form, which from personal experience is accurate: https://www.bobsredmill.com/product/protein-oats

[dripdry45]

Alton Brown did a great episode of good eats about oats. Basically, the faster they cook the fewer vitamins and minerals and good things there are in it for you